Percutaneous device closure of the left atrial appendage (LAA) has been introduced in the last decade as a minimally invasive alternative treatment to long-term anticoagulation to reduce the risk of thrombo-embolism in patients with atrial fibrillation. Echocardiography is an essential tool at all stages of the procedure. Pre-procedural echocardiography is used to screen suitable candidates and...

a 51-year-old man was admitted to the emergency department with palpitation and atypical chest pain. he had a history of percutaneous mitral valve commissurotomy 20 years previously. he did not use any drugs. physical examination was unremarkable except for a loud s1 on auscultation. the surface electrocardiogram (ecg) showed atrial fibrillation rhythmwith rapid ventricular response and right b...

BACKGROUND Atrial remodeling has emerged as the structural basis for the maintenance and recurrence of atrial fibrillation. Lactate signaling cascade was recently linked to some cardiovascular disorders for its regulatory functions to myocardial structural remodeling. It was hypothesized that lactate signaling cascade was involved in the maintenance and recurrence of atrial fibrillation by regu...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an independent risk factor for stroke. Anticoagulation therapy has a risk of intracerebral hemorrhage. The use of percutaneous left atrial appendage (LAA) closure devices is an alternative to anticoagulation therapy. Echocardiography has a leading role in LAA closure procedure in patient selection, during the procedure and during followup. A comprehensive echocardiog...

BACKGROUND Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has been used recently to detect atrial thrombi before cardioversion of atrial arrhythmias. It has been assumed that embolic events after cardioversion result from embolism of preexisting atrial thrombi that are accurately detected by TEE. This study examined the clinical and echocardiographic findings in patients with embolism after cardioversi...

the prevalence of atrial fibrillation (af) is 1-2 % in the general population, and the risk of embolic stroke in af patients is 4-5 times higher than that in the general population. af-related strokes are often severe, and the rate of permanent disability is much higher among individuals who have af-related strokes than in those who have strokes unrelated to af. in patients with af, more than 9...

The atrium has been considered for too many years a neglected chamber and because of this the assessment of atrial function is still a challenge. More recently, new noninvasive diagnostic modalities have shed new light on atrial role in several diseases. The assessment of atrial function may have particular relevance for the growing epidemic of atrial fibrillation which currently affects nearly...

background: about half of all patients who undergo mitral valve surgery suffer from atrial fibrillation (af). cox described the surgical cut-and-sew maze procedure, which is an effective surgical method but has some complications. this study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a substitution method of radiofrequency ablation (rfa) for patients undergoing mitral valve surgery with af. metho...

A major concern in cardioversion of newly detected atrial fibrillation is the risk of thromboembolic events. The vast majority of these events occur in the first week following cardioversion. Transesophageal echocardiography has demonstrated that thrombus and dense spontaneous echo contrast may occur in the left atrium and left atrial appendage in patients with acute atrial fibrillation (<48 ho...